Conventionally known as a device for removing guts from the abdomen of a fish body with the head cut off without damaging the same is, for example, the invention described in Patent Literature 1.
The device is provided with a transfer device for a fish body with the head cut off and removed. From the transfer start side (upstream) toward the transfer terminal side (downstream) of the transfer device, a cutting blade for the abdomen of the fish body; and a separation blade that has an inverted-U shape in cross section and is configured to peel off the peritoneal membrane adhered to the inner wall of the fish meat exposed on a head cut-off section are sequentially disposed. The device is further provided with: a member, provided upstream of the cutting blade, configured to guide the fish body to the cutting blade while maintaining the fish body in a predetermined attitude; and a guide member, provided upstream of the membrane separation blade, configured to carry the vertebra of the fish body so that the peritoneal membrane is positioned under the membrane separation blade and guide the same toward the separation blade through the fish body.
When a fish body with the head cut off and removed is supplied, with the head cut-off section oriented toward downstream, to the transfer start side of the transfer device of the gut removal device thus configured, the fish body is fed to the cutting blade while being retained by a guide member in a predetermined attitude, and is then cut open by the cutting blade. The fish body with the abdomen cut open is fed to the membrane separation blade while the vertebra exposed on the head cut-off section is placed on and along the guide member, so that the tip of the membrane separation blade enters in between the inner wall of the fish meat and the peritoneal membrane. As the fish body is moved downstream, the membrane separation blade peels off the peritoneal membrane from the inner wall of the fish meat while entering deep along the lower surface of the vertebra.
When the tip of the membrane separation blade passes through the abdominal cavity, the peritoneal membrane is perfectly peeled off from the inner wall of the fish body, so that the guts adhered to the inner surface of the peritoneal membrane are dropped downwardly out of the abdominal cavity and thus removed in conjunction with the peritoneal membrane.